The Guyana Society for the Blind’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) programme has recorded an overall pass rate of 95% this year, representing the best performance by students since it was started in 2014.
Five students wrote the examinations via the programme this year. Faith Greene emerged as the top performer, with a Grade 1, three Grade 3s and two Grade 2s. She was followed by Romel Narine, who secured a Grade 1, a Grade 2, and three Grade 3s; Omesh Jhagro, who secured two Grade 2s and three Grade 3s; Sachi Harricharan, who got passes in four of the five subjects which he wrote; and Robecka Edinboro, who passed two of the three subjects she wrote.
This was revealed at a press conference at the Guyana Society for the Blind on High Street yesterday.
During the press conference, Ganesh Singh, Coordinator of the programme for the Guyana Society for the Blind, thanked everyone who was involved in the initiative, especially the Ministry of Education, which he said paid the examinations fees for the students and provided the necessary learning materials.
He revealed that since the programme started, 42 persons have benefitted so far. Of that number, 47% went on to continue their studies at a tertiary institution and 45% are currently employed. “This is extremely high for such a small, underfunded programme,” he added.
Furthermore, he said, despite the fact that the programme is specifically for the visually-impaired, since the beginning they have accommodated people who have physical or learning disabilities. “This year we worked with visually impaired and also persons with physical disabilities and some persons have both physical and visual disabilities,” he said.
Singh also revealed that the Ministry of Public Telecommunications donated laptops to the Guyana Society for the Blind and these were handed over to the students. He said those laptops were used for completing School Based Assessments and for study purposes.
Greene, 18, who had dropped out from another programme, began attending classes at the Guyana Society for the Blind. She is visually-impaired but not totally blind. She said she is very excited and pleased with her results and plans to attend the University of Guyana to pursue a degree in Communications. “I want to become a journalist. I like writing,” she added. Green wrote English A, Social Studies, Principles of Accounts, Human and Social Biology, Principles of Business and Office Administration.
Omesh Jhagro, 37, also felt pleased and proud of his achievement. He revealed that he wrote CSEC when he was younger and not completely blind, as he is now. He said due to the fact that he was suffering from Uveitis then, he was unable to perform well. He eventually lost his sight at the age of 25. “I am very proud to know that I have lost my sight and still be able to do something that I can be proud of,” he stated. Due to his personal experiences, Jhagro hopes to become a social worker someday, especially for persons with disabilities. “I love to do counselling and love to advise persons and give people confidence,” he said.
He wrote English A, Social Studies, Human and Social Biology, Office Administration and Principles of Business.
Meanwhile, Harricharan, 27, disclosed that writing CSEC was very challenging for him, mostly because of his disability. During the preparations, he constantly doubted himself but now he says he is very pleased with his success. The aspiring graphic designer wrote Principles of Business, Office Administration, Social Studies, Human and Social Biology and English A. He revealed that he is interested in writing Mathematics. “I don’t have Maths and Maths is a very important subject and I want to have my own business in the future, so I feel it is very important to take up Maths,” he stated.
As for 18-year-old Edinboro, the most challenging part of preparing for the exams was studying as she is very prone to headaches. She wrote Mathematics, Office Administration and Electronic Document Preparation and Management. She plans to rewrite Mathematics as she is not satisfied with her results in the subject.
